Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Heresy!!! Caterpillar Breaks With USCAP Dogma (CAT; FDX)

Caterpillar is a member of USCAP whose climate policy manifesto (cap-and-trade with free allocations, more giveaways with "credit for early action", etc.) was embraced by the ineffectual monstrosity that is Waxman-Markey.Holy schism, Batman! From Bloomberg:

Caterpillar, FedEx Favor Carbon Tax Over Cap-and-Trade Measure

The chief executives of Caterpillar Inc. and FedEx Corp. said they prefer a tax on carbon dioxide emissions and criticized the cap-and-trade measure being debated in Congress.

The legislation approved by the House in June gives certain industries free pollution permits that would distort the market, said Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx, the package-shipping company based in Memphis, Tennessee.

“We very much believe that a straightforward graduated tax on carbon is better than the cap-and-trade,” Smith said in Washington today. He was among a group of executives who participated in an energy conference.

The House passed legislation that would reduce emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 by limiting carbon-dioxide pollution and establishing a market for the trading of pollution allowances.

“A year ago carbon tax was dead because it had the word tax in it,” said George David, chairman of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp. It has been revived, “in part because of some of the complexities and loopholes that have worked their way into” the cap-and-trade legislation, he said.

The House passed a measure in June sponsored by Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts. It would give away about 85 percent of all allowances to emit gases tied to global warming. That measure doesn’t create a direct enough disincentive to pollute, some corporate executives have said.

Certain people backing a carbon tax may be trying to make passage of the cap-and-trade measure more difficult, said Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, which is run by Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation....MORE